Due diligence is an essential element of any fundraising endeavor. It confirms that the company or individual is who they say they are, and also provides details regarding their past as well as their relationships, and helps investors assess your company’s chances for success before making a decision to invest in you.
You can make a difference by conducting thorough due diligence, regardless of whether you’re a company looking for investment or a charitable organization. The ability to conduct due diligence early in the process enables you to quickly detect and weed out bad partners before you spend your time and energy in forming a relationship that may not be worth it.
If a donor’s past has been shattered by controversies in their actions or associations that have caused controversy, it could be a deal breaker. Having the ability to conduct due diligence on prospective donors at an early stage will allow you to learn prior to committing valuable resources to a partnership that isn’t in line with your organization’s values and goals.
A great due diligence program is quick, thorough, and organized. It should be able to absorb massive amounts of data from a variety of sources, including news media websites, social networks, as well as grey literature. It will then produce digestible reports that can be easily shared across teams. It will also be able to automatically search through millions of documents and provide a clear, structured image of your company that’s easy to read and share.